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Pedal power reveals the hidden Iran

In Shushtar, McCarron saw hydraulic systems that would have once irrigated the whole city

IT WAS never part of the plan to go cycling in Iran. For three snowy weeks in
winter I’d been following the Karun, the longest river in the country, with
my friend Tom, on foot and by portable kayak. We started high in the Zagros
mountains in the southwest of the country and watched the river grow from a
small trickle into a ferocious boulder-strewn torrent.

It was soon to morph again, this time because of a series of dams that would
transform it into vast, calm reservoirs. Paddling would be desperately dull
and walking impractical. We were deep in the mountains, the weather
increasingly mild and the sun shining. After weeks of hard hiking and
paddling, the sealed road suddenly beckoned. This was surely a situation for
bicycles.

The fact that we didn’t have any wasn’t a problem. This was Iran, after all: a
desperately misunderstood country but for